Well it's been a long day.
Getting up and facing the reality of having to move everything in my bedroom to the center so Taylor could paint it? Ugh.  Wasn't particularly in the mood to be honest.  But the colors in my room! Disgusting! One wall puke green. That's what I call it anyway, absolutely abhorrent color.  Bright, ugly green.  I've been looking at that for over 2 years, enough was enough.

The other 3 walls were this yellowish, baby throw up color.  Just repulsive.  Black curtains.  Nothing matching in there, that got me motivated.  A huge pain the @$$ though.  It takes far longer to prep a room to paint than it does to actually paint it.  I did all of that, my room in a shambles but cleared out paths all along the walls.  Covered the floor with paper, covered the bed and furniture with plastic and there we go.  The rest up to Taylor, tho repeated requests for this and that.  She wanted me to take the TV down off the wall, not a happening event.

Not by myself anyway. That TV is huge, there is no way I was going to attempt to get it down. I moved it out from the wall as far as the mount would let it go - which is quite a ways actually, she managed to work behind it. I was impressed tho. She painted that whole room in one day.  Considering everything else she was doing, yeah quite the feat. 

Well, after getting that moving around stuff done, I went to hanging Christmas lights. Only got partially the way through that before realizing I should have bought another 50 light stringer of the C-9's when I got them a few weeks ago.  Taylor had gotten 2 walls done at that point and she was ready to go to Walmart, so was I!  Several items, including those lights.  Yup, Walmart didn't have any.  After leaving there over to Lowe's where I had bought the first roll: not only completely out, but a sign already up saying all Christmas decor items 50% off? Already?

It's still 10 days til' Christmas I was shocked to see that sign there.  They did, however, have C-6's so I thought something better than nothing, bought 3 packages of that and a few other things and out of there.  Back to the house, I'm finishing up what I can on Christmas lights, she's finishing up painting - which meant moving even more stuff around.  I accidentally touch a wall she had painted and it was still wet.  Oh wow! I thought, I'm not sleeping in here tonight. 

Yes, that was my first thought. I can't move all my stuff back into place against walls while it's still wet.  I kind of hoped it would dry enough, but it never did.  Temps are cool here, that room doesn't heat as well as the rest of the house and we had the furnace turned to 68 degrees anyway.

So, I sat at the kitchen bar for several hours playing on my new computer and attempting to decide what to do. Cause I could have just slept on the couch,  a thing I hate.  I could have taken the dogs over to the other house, went to work, got the semi, brought it home and spent the night with it running in the driveway, sleeping in there. Or, I could go to a hotel, take the dogs to a dog -friendly hotel and say screw it, I'll just treat myself.  I've treated everyone else lol.  I've bought almost all presents I intend on buying. Family is done, James and Taylor done.  A few friends, done.  Boys - done. 

I'm at the local La Quinta. This is a far superior hotel than the La Quinta in Lufkin.  I mean, just flat out superior.  I love the 10 foot high ceilings. All exterior doors are inside, not facing outside, meaning there are internal hallways here versus that old run down place in Lufkin which has the design of a Motel 6.  Modern, up to date furniture. They have Dish network versus whatever on earth they had at the Lufkin location.   I'm on the 3rd floor.  And yes, I brought my dogs and trotted them right through the door and into the elevator lol.  The current situation is one dog has taken over one bed, the other my bed. The other, on my bed, being Addler of course.  If I'm home, he's near me, lol.  They're going to have to figure it out. I'm taking the pillows off their bed, pull the cover all the way up to to the edge and they can have a bit more room.  And figure it out for themselves, cause' those dogs are not sleeping in my bed tonight. 

Checkout time here is 12:00.  I dunno how long I'm sleeping in the morning, but I certainly don't have to worry about getting up early.  I'll get home, hope the walls are dried enough to put everything back in order and get it done. I have a Brownsville run on Monday.  I'm actually really not happy I couldn't take the Cheniere run today. I would be getting back in the morning and then getting ready for the next run to Brownsville.  I'm going to ask my manager to please send me right back out after I get back. This sitting around stuff is nice I guess for the off time, it totally sucks for paychecks. 

Like, get home from Brownsville and go right back out if possible. If not, sit around for no more than a day and get me back out there.  Or not, if it's not available.  I'm actually wanting a longer run. West Virginia, Ohio or Ilinois.  I'd even take the 7 day Pennsylvania run right now. 

On another note, one benefit of having 2 dogs is that they lick each other's ears.  Gross, I guess in human terms, but perfectly normal in animal world.  My current dogs? Yea, they haven't figured that out.  So the vet told me the other day one of Addler's ears is very much filled with goo and please get some ear cleaner that they would gladly provide and clean them out.  Oh, btw? The vet, the actual animal doctor? Was terrified of Addler.  She had no confidence and hence she came across as a threat to Addler.  The fear was all over her face.  Yes Addler was growling at the assistants taking the blood, but he couldn't bit anyone if he wanted to with that thing on his snout and I was all over him anyway.  The vet? Stood by the door lmao. 

I've actually never seen another large dog while at a vet. The dogs I see are miniatures up to medium sized dogs. 

I was very unimpressed with the vet, but her assistants were fantastic!  I was the one that suggested they muzzle when they started talking about sticking him with needles 3 times. He's not a fan, I told them, he will  growl, just for your own peace of mind, perhaps you want to put one on?  They were all over that lol, but they never flinched at him.  Some of my Danes? Just never fans of the vet.  I could never get a couple of them to "like" any aspect of it besides sniffing other dogs.  I can't force them to like the visit, but I will be in their faces and making them understand they aren't going to be biting anyone that day.  The thing is, Addler has already bitten a person.  Drew blood too.

But I take no responsibility for a person coming up to the house when no-one is there, reaching over the back fence and "invading" a dog's territory he is rightfully protecting. I felt bad for the lady, yes, but I wasn't offering anything on that deal.  You should know better. Or you should have an air about you that the dog innately respects.  Some people have that, many people don't. 

I'm still perplexed at a person taking the role of a Vet and having fear of the animals that person is going to treat.

Well, I'm watching a movie. They have some decent movie channels here.

The spectacle of the Hondurans in the caravan grows in it's absurdity by the day.  Now they are demanding, via the US embassy in Tijuana, for 50k a piece and then they'll go home.  So this is the kind of people we want in the US? More entitlement, put your hands out and let us fill them with cash for doing what, nothing?  Further, these people aren't going to help  our economy in any imagineable way.  They are poor and uneducated.  What contribution are they going to be able to make to an increasingly tech oriented society? Are we going to pay them to go to school, too? 

I feel for the poor and needy, trust me I help them a lot currently, out of my own pocket, not through government entitlement programs. Well I help fund those too through my paychecks.  But there are literally billions of poor and needy in this world, we can't take them all in.  Note how the Venezualans, who are in far worse dire straits than these Hondurans, aren't joining these caravans?  It's been suggested and proven that these caravans have been bought and paid for, these aren't just people wanting some sort of better way of life, this whole thing has been funded by Soros type people and organizations.

I'm beyond sick and tired of identity politcs and virtue signaling from the left. 

______________________

Let's see, it's Friday.  Got 2 texts this morning that the pump is down at the plant.  Meaning, no one is getting loaded.  I'm certainly glad I'm not in the queue to get loaded today.  Although, with that info, I wouldn't even go to the plant. Just wait at home for some word that it's up and running and then head to work.  The truck is not fixed and the mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Oh there's something wrong with it alright, lol, that extreme vibration isn't just in my head.  That whole truck shakes. But I don't care. I informed them of the problem, they can send the truck out, something is going to break, hopefully out of town, sit in a hotel and get breakdown pay again.  Mechanic said he checked the Ujoints - but I don't know how he checked them.  Ujoints can look fine from the outside and still be dried out and falling apart on the inside. 

I dunno, but the plant pump not working could screw up the entire weekend.  Depends on how long it takes them to get it up and going again.  This is what happens when they start replacing parts in the system as they did last week. 

Well I'll just see what happens with that.  It's raining on and off again. Which sucks. 

Well, now I'm babysitting a sick boy.  Taylor called - the preschool called her.  Fever and not feeling good.  Fortunately that boy is easy to babysit when he's sick. He comes home and sleeps.  Which is what he is doing right now.  Meanwhile, I have dinner going in the crockpot, laundry - 2 loads and on the third - cleaning my room and fixing to go out to the front porch and tackle that project.  It isn't just stringing lights, there is a large volume of "stuff" out there that is making the front of the property look trashy to say the least.

In the meantime, I spent an hour on the phone with Farmers - this deal of trying to get my house insured has turned into a real chore. The bank has it's version of insurance on it and it stinks to put it mildly.  Farmers seem sure they can get this done and it's a little less than half of what the bank is charging me. Note that the bank is only covering the house.  Not the property, not any personal property inside the house.  No liability if someone gets hurt, etc.  So for $1,700 a year I think or is it 6 months? I think a year, I get very little coverage.  I'm expecting Farmers to call back tomorrow with a quote. 

My travel desires are not forgotten either. My good buddy Fin giving me some very helpful advice since he has spent much time traveling all over the world.  I will eventually decide what I want to do next and - probably in 3 or so months, maybe even March - and then do it!

Diet? still on it.  No weight loss but fat loss definitely.  I don't know how that works.  You lose fat but weight remains the same? I remain confident that i will eventually lose all the weight I want to lose.  It doesn't have to happen in three months, it took years for me to get as fat and heavy as I was, tho admittedly the last year at this job it went up very quickly. 

That's it, for now.

I like rain, but I don't like this much of it.  Seems like everytime I'm home, it's raining.  Today was no exception.  Can't rake the yard, which was a goal to at least get started going today.  I am not going to replace the battery in the Jeep - and get soaking wet. It's sitting out in the street I just want to be able to move it and use it.  But no thanks.

Instead, I took Addler to the vet to get rabies shot and other stuff done.  Another nice $300 bill.  I try to stay away from the vet as much as possible because that is always the outcome.  But his tag needed renewed and heart worm injection and examination.  And his claws.  He's running in the dirt all the time, it does nothing to keep his claws short and trim.  But watching them do it, I am sure I can do it from now on, just didn't want to get a bleeding gusher going by cutting too short. 

After that was a burn permit - $25 to burn leaves in your own yard? Pretty outrageous.  The only other option is to fill up 50 giant leaf bags and that is a pain in the rear.  Ridiculous tho.  Shouldn't have to pay for any permit but if you do, $25 is outrageous. 

After that off to the courthouse, wanted to turn in paperwork that absolves you of responsibility if the person that buys your car commits a crime with it or gets into an at fault accident.  Turns out I was supposed to do that online, which I just got finished with.  The guy that bought the thing doesn't even have a driver's license.  That's not my problem, just covering my bases. 

Oh, and hanging Christmas lights.  Haven't done that yet.  It's wet and I'm hoping it will stop raining so I don't have to get wet in order to do so. 

Actually I have a much longer list of stuff still needing to get done, I've had enough for a while. Been moving since 7am and it's now 1:30.  I have no idea whether I'm going out again tomorrow or this weekend, but I'm assuming I will.  Just more cleaning projects tho.

I"m hoping for another Brownsville run or something that doesn't - normally - take more than 2 days, but I'll take whatever . This pay period is done.  I should have a huge check coming next week.  My manager didn't apply the vacation hours I had asked her to, which explains why last paycheck was quite pathetic.  The company gave me a  $400 bonus for what I don't know, no explanation given. I mean, it's nice lol not complaining I didn't think I would be getting any more bonuses after all of this nonsense going on switching to a different company. 

I did find out that some drivers had been sent out to various places around the country to do other work because of the slow down.  My manager said that work is picking up, which is good news.  Anyone, I'm done with this, got more stuff to do.

A relatively quick run. 
The plant changed it's loading time rules - which no one bothered to tell me about - so I arrived way earlier than I needed to.  Once I start the clock on my Quaalcomm, it doesn't stop. 4-1/2 hours wasted at the plant and I knew I wasn't making it down to Brownsville on Monday and subsequently knew that I wouldn't be back until Wednesday- today.

There were 2 empty trailers down there, that's always disappointing.  Especially when you are wasting a 3rd day anyway. 

And, of course, another problem with the truck. This time? Severe vibration to the point the whole truck is shaking at speeds between 35 and 55 mph.  Well, you know, hardly surprising on a vehicle that has almost 700k miles on it.  I'm guessing a U Joint. the thing has half a dozen of them on there.  The tires looked okay as far as separation goes, but they are getting thin as well.  So I wrote it all up.  My manager asked if I didn't want to go out until it's fixed? Uh no.  You can send me out if you like, if the thing breaks I'll be happy to sit at a hotel again lol. 

She isn't actually opposed to that.  Lol.  Well whatever, I reported it.  What I don't want to do is sit around for 10 days doing nothing. 

And today, I saw my check details.  My manager did not put my vacation pay on there.  Lol. I'm not going to say anything about it, there is no point.  I don't want it now after all the time sitting at the hotel, for the next paycheck, I will survive with out it.

And speaking of vacations, the lady friend here announced that she won't be able to go with my overseas.  I had hoped she could after announcing she wanted to, but wasn't necessarily holding out any hope.  I will now proceed to look into going at any date.  I found round trip to Dublin for $500.  Economy class, yes. that would suck.  I mean, I want a window seat if I'm doing that at least.  Hopefully they let you get up and stretch in the aisle on such long flights? 

I have decided I'm more drawn to Ireland than London at the moment. But there is the pesky little detail of the 2 states I haven't been to - Alaska and Hawaii. Or the fact that I have never been on a cruise.  I think my research for the time being is going to be Ireland, where to go, where to stay on the cheap - I'm making money yes but that doesn't mean I want to just flush it down the drain.   So many places to go.  So many things to see. A small bucket list is going to grow.  I think. 

Dreaming is a good thing, I think. Trying to make some of it come true is entirely another. 

I'm going to have to make a decision about work soon enough. Well I don't have to do anything, but if I want to get involved with owning my own truck or not.  Seems so late in life to be attempting anything like this.  It is, actually, but to envision a "retirement" broke and in want is nothing I want to deal with.  Or owning rental properties. I need more education on such things. 

I dunno but I'm going to sleep lol.

Why do some people make shopping for Christmas for them so difficult?
Ask them what they want and they give you a general category with literally thousands of possibilites that span the spectrum of likes - and dislikes.

So you see, I'm not doing the gift card junk.  If this person doesn't like what I get them, they should have just told me what they wanted in the first place. Give me a list of 3 or more of them so whatever I get, it's a sort of surprise.

Don't worry, I'll tell her, I have the receipt.  Which I will.  I'd hope that I could make a lucky guess, but I'd rather a person take something back and get what they want.  Well, I'd rather they specify what they want.

Car is hopefully sold tomorrow.  A couple of people want to get it for the full price. I told them flat out that if they come over here and offer me less, they can turn around and go home.  One of them sent me a pic of hundred dollar bills.

Lol. I could send him a pic back of lots of hundred dollar bills.

__________________

Sunday night. Car sold.  2 people flaked. One of them showed up wanting the car, but no money? How does that work? He said he would buy it Thursday and would I still have it? Umm, I hope not, is the exact words that came out of my mouth. See, I didn't promise him any such thing and he came off as having cash in hand.

The first person - the person I thought really wanted the car - said he was coming up from Lufkin.  I mean, like we already had that part of it down.  Then, when it came time for him to come up here, he cajoled and hawed and hemmed. I'll be leaving "in a minute". I let this go on for hours, actually. Until I asked him if he was actually coming, cause' I want to get rid of this thing today. I have no "love" for this car.

I got 10 years of use out of it, it still runs - quite well actually - It has problems, but running down the road isn't one of them.  I sold it cheap, $700. I put up an ad after these 2 flaked on me-  people that have been asking about it for a week, and then?  I've gotten 100 replies on the ad at least.  50% of them trying to offer me $400 for it? No thanks.  Just no.  I'll donate it before I do that.

Anyway the first person kept putting me off which is when I cut him off. Okay, well I'm moving on to the next person.  Oh well I"m already headed your way!  How many times have I heard that from people on these ads in my life? He wasn't headed anywhere. I ended up having to block him on Facebook - where I had that particular ad and on FB Messenger.  The third person.  I'm coming down to look at it.  Okay. He was 17 miles away, north of my town.  And yes, he showed up.  I let him take the car for a drive.  He was gone a while.

He had all kinds of questions, looked the thing totally over, asked more questions. I didn't blame him, but at the same time? He drove it, he knew this car is in very good shape for the price. He tried to talk me down price, no thanks I said. I can donate this to a charity and get a better tax write off than selling it to anyone.  So he took it.

He doesn't actually have a driver's license lol. But that isn't my problem.
I'm canceling insurance on that car today - it's now Monday morning, I think I started this post 2 days ago lol - and then when I get back from this Brownsville run, take the paperwork in that absolves me of any liability if the man crashes the car or whatever might happen.  I have his signature on the paperwork as it stands. 

I got up early this morning - only because someone was making a lot of noise in the house and woke me up.  So, finish the deal, get up, get some coffee, etc etc etc, have some time to sit around and collect my thoughts.  I would have rather slept, but being awakened like that? I wasn't going back to sleep. 

I haven't done any serious driving in what, 12 days? Lol. 

Anyway, the money from the sale of the car will go towards fixing the problems left in the Jeep.  Namely a lug nut that won't come off even after heating it up so we could replace the brakes in it and it needs a new battery.  It also needs the AC compressor replaced but that isn't a priority right now.  I just want it running.  I may get rid of it as well. I haven't decided on that yet.  I just didn't have a need for 3 vehicles and that car...it was time to get rid of it. Almost 11 years of that thing and I was sick of seeing it.  I think I may keep the Jeep as a back up vehicle and who knows, if I ever get into dire financial straits - hopefully not - but if that ever happened and lost the SUV I'd have a vehicle that I own outright. 

Well, it's time to get my stuff together and hit the road.

Today's agenda was to get the new TV up and running. IE: get it mounted on the wall. I had the wall mount installed before I left, but that was as far as I got.  James helped quite a bit, picking that huge TV up and mounting it on the wall by myself? I'm not sure I would have been able to do it. 

The thing needs a soundbar and surround sound added.  Not bad quality sound on the TV but certainly nothing near what it could be.  This was my Christmas gift to myself. 

Next? Get out the new laptop  - the order that I canceled and was verified with a Walmart online manager over the phone that it was canceled- that I got anywhere and yes they took my money.  Actually I may leave it in the box,  once I open it I'm sure there's trouble trying to send it back.  I don't know if I want it or not. I mean, I sort of do but a friend told me this particular brand of laptop can have problems.  I need to do some research on this specific model and then make a decision about calling Walmart back to take this thing back - or just keep it.  It's got the 15 inch screen which is what I'm really missing when I'm out on the road.  Last trip - 7 nights in a hotel.  I was using the notepad with 11 inch screen.

I've basically decided to save save save.  Until I figure out whether I want to start a business or buy property,  it's just a focus on getting money into a savings account.  Since I already have a mortgage, it will take a significant down payment even with good credit.  They'll look at my payment history on that mortgage and that's not going to bear well for me.  It's been over 2 years, but that's still fresh to bankers.  It will take years to save up enough money to get that kind of down money, even with aggressive saving practices.

I missed the property tax auction, I was in Lufkin. I didn't even think about it until something prompted it.  Now I'll just have to wait until the next one, whenever that is.  Meanwhile there are still owner financed properties out there.  No hurry for the wrong place that has no earning's potential.  That's really the only reason I want owner financing - to rent out.  I haven't seen any 50 plus acres lots owner financed.  Rent to own options as well. That may work for the place being rented for Renia when the 1 year lease is up.

It was Donny that got me to just doing whatever to get a place.  They were getting too picky.  It would have served a far better purpose if we would have taken the 4 bedroom house that was a bit cheaper than the one they are in, minus Donny.  I kind of let him take over the search, having no idea what the future was going to bring: Him being thrown out and not in the picture.  A 4 bedroom house I could rent the rooms cheaper and thus much easier to fill the rooms.  It doesn't help, tho, that it's the holidays and people not likely to want to be moving right now.  But thinking about it, I could have at least tried to find a rent to own or an owner finance house.  As it stands, I have no intention on them staying in the current house at the current room rate.  It will either come down $150 per month or we will at least try to find a new place.

I'm likely to eat the utilities at the house this month. I've had a few people say they were coming to look, but they flaked.  The only consolation, I guess, is I've been gone a lot and to pay a kennel to watch 2 dogs for that amount of time would incur much more cost> I haven't given up yet and I think I'm going to advertise a "1st month special" of $250 and then the regular rent after that.  Just to get something to help pay for it. 

And finally, a hot fire.  It's just perfect weather. Just checked for the first time in probably a week: still in ketosis.  Right where it was the last time I checked it.  I'm right at 20 carbs for the day.

Finally home.
The stretch in Lufkin: worth it.
The plant has completely shut down, drivers sitting around doing nothing, who knows when it will fire back up. 
And, we are hiring more drivers? 
That makes absolutely zero sense.  We haven't had enough work as it stands to keep us all busy before this plant shutdown, I don't know what this company is thinking.  They don't think?  Are they expecting some bonanza of new work to pop up? The latest newsletter says they are going after more accounts and new business.

Great! Hire more driers AFTER you get those accounts. BTW, get some new trucks while you're at it.  This old junk we're driving? Sucks. 

Looking ahead today: raining.  I may or may not try to get a fire going, depends on if I can get some dry enough wood from under the top layer in the cord sitting out there.  The kitchen is an absolute total disaster, but I expected that.  I didn't say I wanted to see that, it's just the way it is here. Clean it up? Yup, I'll clean it up for my own sanity. 

But first, a haircut, Lowe's for some paint, Walmart for some wood chips. 

_____________________

And the day is done.  After all of that, I went home, fired up the smoker, got the fire pit going and sat out there alllll the rest of the day and into the night. 

Amazingly, my manager sent me a run. Really was a bit shocked at that.  Considering the numbers of drivers sitting around and the lack of work, I really didn't think I'd be going anywhere for a while.  It's another Brownsville run. Which is quite fine by me and I get the whole weekend off, I don't have to be at the plant until 8:00 am Monday.  I'm not going to go in there with any high hopes of getting in and out.  Without any detention pay on this next run, I"ll still be close to 5k for this next coming pay period.  I'm not bragging or anything, not at all. I know people that make a lot more money lol. It's just that it will help make up for my - $700 net paycheck -  I got today. 

Good thing I didn't go flying off anywhere. I've got that bug, go somewhere.  Not by truck, not by car, by plane!  I really thought I wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, I'm really glad that I am.

This really opens up the idea of getting the rest of my Christmas shopping completed. 

And with that, I'm off to find those gifts.

Home Sweet Home.
Finally.
I couldn't resist talking to other drivers tho once I got to the yard.

An update was necessary.

Drivers sitting there for days now, doing nothing.

The plant shutdown ended up in catastrophe. They replaced a tank and then couldn't get the operation up and running again. Drivers sitting around doing nothing.

This is the reason I said I was glad that I had to sit around doing nothing and getting paid for it.  From what I"m seeing, I'll be off for days and days.  In fact, it would be a good time to fly somewhere. You know? I would love to go play some blackjack in Las Vegas. 

Or drive up to the mountains somewhere. 

Or go camping with the dogs (I have zero camping equipment but I could make do).

Something? 

Sit around the house?

I intend on smoking some meat tomorrow tho. I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, I just don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon and I am guessing it's a good time to take advantage of it. I've been through this with this company before and have wasted opportunities to travel because I didn't know. 

The dogs and I had a grand reunion.  Like meeting new doggies lol.  Except they know me and going crazy.  Addler is currently crashed out in my bed.  That is not HIS bed, haha.

I'm keeping this one short. I'm glad to be home.  I'll make a fire in the pit tomorrow, get some smoking wood from Walmart if they have any,  smoke some ribs,  do some cleaning outside. It's raining now and likely continue through the weekend as far as I can tell, but I can get some stuff done. 

Well whatever happens. I''m home. 

I've kind of numbed my mind to resolve that I am down here now, wait it out and I will go home when I  - can go home.  I've been in Lufkin for 7 days now.  It's a hefty chunk of change, I mean, at least for me, serious money.  Including the mileage for this trip, I'm well over 4 grand.  For some reason, I have confidence I"m finally getting out of here today, whereas yesterday I didn't really feel that and yes, that feeling was before I ever called the shop.  I'll be giving them a call in  a couple of hours, if they have the part, then definitely going home. It's only a few hours to finish the job once they get it. 

Honestly, if I had had transportation, I could have driven over to Shreveport and gotten a seal and been back down in much less time than this has all taken.  See, this is why I hated that trip up to PA last year during that blizzard.  I got homesick after about 6 days and thought mostly of going home. Tho that was exacerbated by very extreme, cold weather with a white out, a blizzard, hazardous driving conditions, an old pile of junk truck that wasn't working properly and a trailer that wasn't holding a vacuum seal, thus forcing me to have to dump vapors all the time.  If they wanted to send me up there again, it would be with the stipulation that I drive my truck up there.  This idea of driving junk equipment is for the birds.  I don't consider my truck that great - mileage and constant issues, but it's far better than that piece of shit they had waiting for me when I got up there.

Anyway, tonight/tomorrow is payday.  I would be dreading this one, but I know it's going to suck so I have already dealt with that in my mind.  That's the 12 days off paycheck, with 40 hours of vacation time added to it and one run.  It's not going to amount to much.  If it's a thousand dollars I'll be surprised.  They don't pay near as much for hourly wage for vacation hours as they do for either detention or breakdown pay.  That is perplexing. 

And, the weather has significantly changed here.  It was beautiful, clear skies with the sun shining almost the entire time I've been down here, now it's overcast with a 40% chance of rain today and 100% chance of rain tomorrow. My town I live in has similar forecast since it's less than 100 miles away - and - because all of this storm stuff always comes in through Houston and then head north northeast.  Right over Lufkin, right over our houses. 

Oh, I guess I haven't reported on the other house.  The lady that moved in last month already left.  She was offered a room in a house of a friend only a few miles from her work over there for $200 per months.  Let's less than half what she was paying at our place and a lot less driving.  I just shrugged my shoulders on that one. I always ask for a couple of weeks advance notice to move, I never get it.  Anyway, December is historically - from my experiences anyway - the worst month to try and rent out a room.  You are very lucky to get anyone that actually has a job and money to pay for the room to come along and take it.  And so is the situation now.  She's been out a week and it's been slim pickings. 

One lady replied to my ad yesterday something like "I don't have any money but I got a job, I'm struggling, can you work with me?". I would love to, but I have bills to pay. I've had these types of people before.  Nothing good ever comes from it.  And I do mean nothing. In fact, in some cases, it goes well over to the other side of, this-person-is-a-nightmare-tenant case that you have to move mountains to get them out of the house.  But another one contacted me yesterday and she has a job.  Another day sleeper with night job type of thing.  Which only works if that person is a heavy sleeper.  And of course the person must either like or be able to tolerate dogs.  The whole purpose of my involvement in that house is to have a place to take my doggies to a person that loves them as much as I do to watch after them.  I mean, how much would it have cost me to put them in a kennel for 8 days? I've been out on this trip since 3 am last thursday,  that's getting close to 8 full days. 

A small fortune, I can guarantee you that.  That's the reason I don't mind eating even a few hundred per month on that house, but right now? It's way too high. With only 2 renters, it only covers the house rent.  The rest of the bills are on me.  Rene has very hard time understanding financial things, she just can't comprehend why I will take anyone that comes along that seems reasonably normal to move in there even for a short period of time.  It's that or I"m shelling out over $400 per month to make up for the gap. After $200, I'm getting antsy.  I feel like I'm paying more than I need to. The option to leave them at home is there, but I would really hate to dump the responsibility for 2, large, attention loving dogs onto them considering they have kids that need mommy and daddy's attention. 

She loves animals tho.  And - today marks the 8th day that I haven't been on a scale and I feel lost lol.  I have no idea if I've gained, lost or stayed at the same weight.  I very much disagree with people that say you should only weigh yourself once a month or once a week. You really have NO idea about your weight and if what you are doing is working or not.

Well, it's 9:20 am, I'll be calling the repair shop in a couple of hours, a bit before I am forced to check out.  Hopefully the part has shown up by then and hopefully they are close to being done with it. 

Watching the funeral of Bush. They're finally to the eulogies.  Quite the grand ceremony, the whole thing.  I actually saw Trump reach a hand to Obama in a friendly gesture.  One wonders what was going on in either man's head considering the heated exchanges the two have had through tweets and the media. The media believes that "could" be the start of an era of healing and bipartisanship and all of that.  Not.  Not happening.  The Trump hate is entrenched. Trump despisers see nothing good in him or what he does.  The ridiculous name calling goes on and on. 

Whatever the case, day 6 in Lufkin and hopefully the final day here. Fixing to call the shop in a few and see if they got the part and if we're still on for today.  Cause' I really, reallllllly want to go home now.  I've been out for 6 days, that's long enough.  I'll make somewhere around $3,600 on this trip - for the miles driven and for the wait here in Lufkin.  I mean, if that part doesn't come in today? I'll have no choice.  Oh heck with it, I'm calling them now.  

They haven't received the part yet.  Gag. FedEx express delivery shows up by 10:00 am I think. It's 11 am now.  I don't even know what to do now.  Ask for another day of hotel?  Take all my stuff and wait somewhere?  I mean, I have too much stuff to just walk around with it tho.  A large bag for clothing and such, a smaller bag for toiletries, a computer bag plus the food I bought.  The  food is half gone at least.  

The problem, of course, is the hotel.  I have to either leave here at noon or have the company get me another day.  That's really up to them, as I just notified my manager what's going on and that there is no guarantee the truck is going to be done, but it's possible it will. Lol.

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Well, giving well advance notice of the dilemma, my manager put it off.  Undoubtedly busy, so the hotel gave me extension til 1 pm.  And more communication with manager who called the repair shop who told her they are having the part tracked down.  Wherever it is, it isn't at the shop.  I would ask them to just let me drive it home - it's just a seal and a very minor leak.  But, our mechanic says he doesn't have the proper tools to be able to install the seal. Here's my problem: I'm stuck outside with all my stuff.  I can't go get my nice hot meal lugging around all this junk unless I get an Uber, it's far too heavy to carry over a mile and I"m just not going to do that. 

I carry all kinds of stuff with me. Between my duffle bag, computer bag and toiletries bag I"m probably lugging at least 40 pounds around.  Im out of clean clothes as well. I had enough to last through today.  This isn't that big of a deal really, I just wanted to go home today and that is looking very much like that's not going to happen.  The repair shop should just order another seal in case the one they did order is never found.  That kind of thing happens, I can testify to that. That way, the seal will definitely be here tomorrow - well hopefully it would anyway - and then they can finish this and I can go home. 

Haha, nope sorry BB boy you aren't going home today  My manager just texted me: part won't be here til tomorrow. I suppose I shouldn't complain. I just did the math, that's another $720 worth of pay.  I'll just have to go find something to do today now that she's getting my room back. I'll be up to 2 weeks worth of normal driving pay at this rate.  She could just put me on the backburner when I get back and not send me out at all considering work is slow. I'll have made my money, let some other driver get their share.

Okay, bowling today?  Or just walk and get some fresh air.  The temps are down but it's very nice outside.  Go get a steak at Logan's roadhouse?  Take in another movie? I dunno, I'll figure it out. It will be a while before my company gets authorization to get me back into a room here.  Oh yes, and my gut! It's visibly decreased since I came into this hotel.  I'm definitely still losing weight - or fat anyway. I wish I could find a scale somewhere!

Well enough of this. I figure the desk clerk will let me back in now.

I'm going stir crazy.  Just here alone, in a motel room, getting cold outside, not much to do.  I could get an uber and go somewhere I guess, maybe even see a movie.  But I'm not going to.  The thing that motivates me right now is the pay.  I verified with my manager about the plant being shut down, but she said "only half a day".  So I guess that means that some trucks at least are getting filled and sent out.
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Day 5 in Lufkin.
I have no idea whether they will have the truck done today ornot, but what is going to happen is my hotel stay ends today. At noon.  It's 8 something am.  So around 10 I'm going to call the shop and see if they think it's going to be done today - or not.  I do not want to pack everything up, go to the shop, wait and then find out I need another night in a hotel.  They should be able to give me a definitive word whether they will have it done or at least a ball park  - yes maybe or probably not.

I'm ready to go home.  Just my mindset as of waking up a while ago, let's get this trip over with. The other mindset is, gee, look at the money you're making sitting around doing nothing. The laundry situation says, gee, you just used your last pair of clean socks.  This was supposed to be a 2 day trip, I planned for at least 6 for "just in case". And, this hotel doesn't have a washer and dryer, the nearest laundromat is 2 and a half miles away, that's pretty lame. Even cheap hotels usually have a washer and dryer at them. This is LaQuinta, a "mid range" hotel brand, tho this is the bottom of the mid range barrel as far as I'm concerned.  I actually asked for this place because it was one of few that looked like it actually had room for a truck.

Yes, there is parking space, but no, getting out of here with a trailer attached is not any truck driver's idea of fun.  Once you pull in, too late! If I ever get stuck in this town again, it's likely that I'm not recommending this hotel.  There is another one up the road - looks like a lower end place - but it's surrounded by restaurants and Walmart is next door.

Meanwhile, it's being reported that Addler is getting grumpy and cranky.  He gets that way when I'm gone too longAfter t3 days he's running to the window looking to see if I'm there, after 4 days he gets cranky, today? It will get worse lol. He spends as much time over there at the other house as he does here, but he's definitely my dog.  He knows that and even tho he likes Rene, it's just not the same. 

And finally, the diet. I've done my best to stay on it while out here.  I think I've succeeded but I haven't been near a scale in 6 days, so I have no clue.  One day I might have gone over on carbs, but I don't think enough to kick me out of ketosis.  I can't  check that because I forgot and left the strips in the truck. I'm having one hot meal a day at least the rest I'm eating out of the refrigerator.  I have no idea whether I'm staying or leaving here today, hence I haven't done the hot meal yet.  In about 30 minutes I'm going to hopefully find out some kind of diagnosis. I called them a little earlier and they just told me to call when it's near checkout time, as they were "doing the diagnostics now", meaning what, they did nothing yesterday?  If I'm staying, I'm getting out of this hotel. End of story on that, spend several hours walking around, going to the mall, whatever, I don't care but I won't spend the entire day in here. 

If I'm leaving, it's about an hour and 40 minutes to the yard. So it doesn't matter what time today I would leave, I'd be home tonight.  I just get really antsy once a deadline approaches and I need an answer.  That would be checkout time at noon here.  They are apparently sticklers for that at this hotel from the way they were talking when I asked yesterday.  Some hotels will give you a few grace hours if you need them. 

Monday morning.
Took the truck in and gave them a list.  Why not have it all fixed if possible.
The warning lights, the cruise control, the billows of smoke that come out of the hood when regen starts, air leaks.  I really want to drag this thing out, actually.  I miss home but I'll love the paycheck 3 Fridays from now. Well they're switching over to weekly pay but I'm not sure when.  So that was quick and easy, they also pointed at 11 other trucks that are in there that have to look at.  I said fine, but I called on Friday, just to be sure.  Yup, it was in there. Okay!  Have a great day! lmao, c'ya later!!

I'm wanting some eggs, bacon and ham. I've been eating all the stuff I bought at Walmart but a hot meal is in order.  Nothing to fancy or expensive.  There is a cracker barrel a half a mile from here, a nice walk in cool weather.  Keto friendly stuff there, just eggs and a slice of ham likely tho.

I'm not sure if I"ll do anything today or not besides walking up for a bite to eat.  I have my doubts they're going to call me and magically tell me the truck is fixed - at all - today. It wouldn't shock me tho if they called and said they can't find out what's the problem, so sorry sob.  I've heard that too many times now.  We no no what wrong, we no do nothing.  You SOL, tank U.  But, there is a bowling alley 2-1/2 miles away, I already saw a movie yesterday and the one I saw was the only one on the list that held any interest for me.  There's a shopping mall but that's a good way to blow a bunch of money, don't need to be doing that right now.

I would go swimming - have my trunks with me - but for whatever reason the pool is closed. It might not be heated, if that were the case then I wouldn't want to go swimming anyway.

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So I walked up to Cracker barrel. Not even a mile away.  I like their coffee and they have offerings for breakfast that work for the diet, just no hash browns, biscuits, gravy, fruits, etc.   This guy brings me my coffee, then my breakfast and then? disappears. My coffee gone, I wanted another cup.  After 5 minutes of waiting - this was a nearly empty restaurant btw, even the waitresses were complaining between themselves how slow it was - I asked another waitress to please get me another cup.  She did and this dude still didn't show up.  I drank that cup and wanted one more before leaving.  He comes out with a coffee pot, fills up 2 tables across from me and completely ignores me!  Note, I didn't say anything foul, negative or otherwise disrespectful to this man at all. 

After he did that, I had had enough.  I got up, walked out to the registers, commented on the service to the person behind the counter. Instead of getting me a manager or doing anything about it, she just referred me to the receipt she was going to give me and said to "fill out the survey". Unbelievable.

Whatever. At least the food was good. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of the day, except wait. The wind is howling outside and the temp has dropped quite a bit.  Not really "let's go out and walk around" type of weather like the last 2 days.  I have stuff to do online now that I think of it, things I want to check out - just my interest in business prospects - and make sure any credit cards didn't dump something on there that I don't know about that needs to be paid or addressesd.

With that, I'm offa here.

Brownsville, got a trailer, headed back up. 
The mechanic calls and asks if I know of a Peterbilt dealership on the way back up.
I said sure, there's one in Houston. He says well take it there and see if they will look at the
problem (that I have been reporting for 8,9 10 months however long).  Well, I can but I don't really want to be sitting around a dealership for however long not making any money. Well that's, the thing, the mechanic tells me, Ann says if you do it out of town you'll be breakdown pay.

I knew that, but I wanted that to come out of their mouths, not mine.  So, I go to the Peterbilt in Houston. Huge facility.  Like, way larger than any other Peterbilt shop I've seen. But I guessed right: they can't look at it until "next week". It was Friday.  So I all the Peterbilt in Lufkin.  First person I talked to says yea, we can get that in on Saturday.  Ok!  Let me call my company and make sure they're okay with that and I'll call back.

Well this went back and forth. Mechanic says fine, whatever, you're better off than coming back here. I call the shop back, uhh, I dunno who you talked to but we don't have anyone qualified to to look at that tomorrow (Saturday).  Here I had thoughts of sitting in a hotel for a few days and getting paid for it and that all came crashing down. Back to my company, didn't hear anything back until maybe half an hour later. The mechanic calls. Well Ann and I have been talking, if they can look at it on Monday, why not do that?  I don't care, I said, as long as I"m getting paid. 

So I called the shop back. And they had to confirm if they would have someone Monday morning. Or whatever they really had to do, not sure.  But they finally called back, we set an appointment and here I have been, since Friday night, at a La Quinta Inn in Lufkin, Texas. Breakdown pay is better than detention pay in that you don't lose 10 hours per day for your "rest" break even tho you aren't working as with detention pay.  You get paid every hour you are sitting around. By tomorrow morning, I'll be at around $1,500 of sitting around in a company paid hotel doing nothing pay. 

Not that I haven't done anything. I've watched several movies, went to Walmart, went to the restaurant next door - which has outrageous prices so I didn't go back there. Today I walked to the Applebee's for a steak. Still doing the diet, yes.  That was the Walmart trip, get food. I then walked even further to the cinema and watched a horror flick. Scary movie indeed lol.

I'm kind of hoping it takes days for them to figure out what's wrong. Remember, 3 other shops have already given up on it.  There is also another problem I'm going to have them look at, I'm looking to legitimately drag this out as long as possible.  The first problem is when all the warning lights come on and then the cruise control quits working. I have numerous pics of it to back up my report, it's an on and off, itnermittent problem.

The other problem is rare but when it happens, it's freaky lol.  The regen light comes on and then? A bunch of steam starts billowing out from underneath the hood.  It literally looks like the truck is on fire.  It's part of the regen process, but people stopped near me in traffic are always freaking out. It's not supposed to do that and I've been told it's a part that cracks.  Well maybe that part is cracked and I have to wait 2 days for them to get the part? 

Why don't I want to go home?  Well that's not it. At all. What it is is that the plant where we load the trucks is going to be shut down 4 days this coming week, or so I was told.  And work is really slow right now. Lots of trucks sitting in the yard, people not working, plants are shut down on the other end for breakdowns.  I didn't bring this idea up to have the truck fixed out here but I'm glad they thought of it and frankly, my manager did it so I could get the money out of it. I was off for 12 days.  I would have a really bad next paycheck after this bad paycheck I'll be getting on Friday. I can absorb one of those, 2 of them in a row? No.  A couple more days down here and I an sit around for the rest of the pay period if it worked out that way with no work at all and have a very nice paycheck. Including this run that I'm on , that is. 

Anyway, I will have the truck at the Peterbilt place at 7:30 am tomorrow, which is Monday, and then catch a ride right back to the hotel.  I'm not going to sit around a driver's lounge in that place when I can be comfortable here.  Actually I need to think about this. There was something else wrong with that thing that comes and goes and it's slipping my mind right now. 

That's it, lol.  Just been lounging around.  I miss my dogs but they're fine at the other house. Rene sends me videos here and there of them, not that I ask for those either but it's nice that she does that.  That's basically their second home. Well lately, it's really their first home for as much time as I"ve been away. 

Oh, and I put an inquiry in for lease-purchase program. Kinda of got into with my manager after she sent out an ugly text to everyone.  I told her I've been writing this truck up for 8 months for the same thing, the truck sat there for almost a month, why wasn't it taken to the shop?  Etc etc etc.  I also said I had asked months ago about info for the lease purchase program that she said she was going to get to me.  So, she sent me that info and I sent them an email.  I hope to receive back the details of the program and especially the costs, how much they take out of any given paycheck and how much I will be paid per mile. 

According to other OO's, the company still pays them detention pay when they have to wait.  I dunno how much, I didn't ask.  I have a couple of people I can ask questions about this situation if I really start thinking I might want to do it.  I wouldn't get breakdown pay, obviously, it's my truck, my responsibility.  I have an old friend in Indianapolis that owns a truck repair shop.  More major repairs I could ask for a load going near there to get fixed.  The shop at the terminal will work on OO trucks tho.  Including regular maintenance.  I'm not sold on the program, I don't know what it entails yet. The OO's own their own trucks, they are not paying the company for them and their trucks are paid off actually.  But sometimes the repair bills are pretty steep.  A turbo went out on one a while back, the repair bill was 8 grand.

Just thinking about it stage.  Been thinking about it, also been thinking about finding a new job.  Or not, lol. 

Well I'm getting offa here. I stayed up way too late last night watching a movie, gonna hit the sack earlier tonight. 

Well, it's Wednesday night.  I finally got a load going down to Brownsville.  Of course, it's the get-up-at-3-am run.  Nothing like being system-shocked back into work!  She offered Corpus Cristi, no thanks.  Very little possibility of any real detention time there. Brownsville you might or you might not, but those times when you do, its very nice.  But I've been getting up at 8 or 9 am for over a week now. Getting up at 3?  Yeah, that's not going to be any fun, at all.  Whatever.

Long day actually. Got my car all cleaned out so i can sell it and re-ran my ad.  Only a few replies this time.
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Okay, I got busy after that making dinner and getting ready for today's trip.
I'ts 3:15 am, I have a few minutes before I have to leave - I always try to get up a little early to
have some Keurig coffee, in this case, McDonald's Cafe. Just received a 100 k-cup box of them. 

I'm glad and horrified at the same time of going back to work lol.  I'll be back in "my" truck and they still haven't fixed it.  No shame.  It would be something nice if I got stuck down in Brownsville on detention pay - there is a small Peterbilt dealership a half mile from the yard.  They've got a shop from what I can see and that means they should have the computer equipment to figure out the problem with the thing - if - it shows the problem at that time. 

WEll cutting this one short, I have to get about the day's business. 

Rather ... interesting... day.
My credit cards were denied 3 times starting last night for that TV I wanted.
3...times...2 different cards....one card I got an email saying I can go ahead and try again.
Which.....I.......did.

Calling Walmart? Might as well ask a fish for directions.  Talk to a telephone pole. Ask the moon if it's alive.  Unbelievable. Not the local Walmart, the 800 please fix this number.  They never did.  I ended up driving up there and just getting one.  I didn't think they'd have any to be honest, I was amazed to find any of them left in stock.

Anyway, it's now Tuesday, I started that post yesterday.
Today's offerings should be work, but she said the loads canceled and no, they haven't taken the truck in to get it fixed.
It's been sitting there what, almost a month now?  If I'd known they weren't going to fix it, I would have taken it in myself, taken an Uber back and charged the company for the trip.  Now, I am faced driving the thing again with the same problems.  My decision will likely to be to find a Peterbilt dealership on the way back from whatever trip I may be on next, tell my manager I'm stopping there and please get me a hotel, thanks.

What else am I supposed to do? I"ve been complaining about this for 8 months now, same problem, never gets fixed, bs.  I'm "assuming" I'm going to work tomorrow, but it's too late.  I'll only have one short run on next paycheck, which might get me a $500 check and then subtract deductions from that.  I have no choice but to use some of the freshly dumped vacation hours up to have at least a small paycheck.

Anyway, I have decided to wait until after the 1st of January to make any decisions about this company and my continued involvement there. If I am going to continue, I want my own truck.  For all the hassle people say it is to own your own truck, they aren't going to deny they make FAR more money after taxes, expenses all of it. Plus, our mechanic will fix anything that he is capable of doing, which is most of it sans electrical/electronic problems. He can't do that because they don't have the very expensive computer system that figures all of that nonsense out.

He likely could have fixed it himself if they had one.  Regardless, I'm in this for the money. It just depends on their terms as to whether I will make the switch or not.  I don't think they offer health care coverage to owner operators, so that's a definite negative.  But as long as the money is really good, covering that would be no problem.  I'm going off of 2 owner operators that have been at the company a while stating they make around  100k per year take home.  That's after everything.

I do NOT want the truck I'm driving now tho.  Something with at most 300k range on it.  Get at least as long out of the truck as the payment schedule goes on for.  There are dealers in this region selling trucks as well.  No clue what it would take to get into one.

And my diet. I've stayed on it.  I failed a teensy bit during Thanksgiving but I was rather proud of myself for sticking on it as well as I did. I tested this morning full Ketosis. Well, as full as I ever was before Thanksgiving. I've never actually gotten into the deep deep purple range, but I didn't care either since the weight was dropping off.

And, I lost another pound and a half.  Weight loss has seemingly returned after a plateau.  I suspect the plateaus will become frequent visitors, that's pretty much how this stuff works in the dieting world.  I need a little over 5 more pounds to get down to the 190's range.  I'm very excited about the potential of actually not being in the 200's range.  It motivates me to push on with this considering I'm so close now..

Meanwhile, Walmart.  They rejected my attempts to buy the TV online 4 times in a row.  So I went down there, asked if they had any of the particular TV, of which they said yes.  Okay, get me one!  But now? They are still trying to charge me for the TV, saying I already picked it up! lmao, so they are going to charge me twice for the same tv lol.

Diet day whatever, lol, 7th week I think.
Up half a pound today.
But just went back into full ketosis so hopefully that will go back down.
And just eat less.
I'm making jalapeno poppers again today and those are quite keto friendly, full of fat, exactly what the keto doctor ordered.
I figure to  get some exercise in today as well.

Anyway, I was looking to just go ahead and pull the cord on getting the 55 inch Walmart TV that is also a smart tv, until I saw that it's refresh rate is 60 mg. I'm not sure about that considering other tv's have much higher refresh rates - with a higher price tag. They had a 2160 for the same price but not a smart tv.

Do I need a smart tv?  I dunno, just seems that if you are going to buy a new tv in this modern era, you should have all the options available in case you need them.  Like if we do decide to get rid of Direct TV, Smart TV's play all those apps available for movies and such.

Meanwhile, today.  I'm assuming I'm not working tomorrow cause' I haven't heard anything but that could change.  Assumptions aside I'll be doing laundry and I want to plant the bulbs I bought over a week ago. Never got around to that.  Daffodils and something else I don't remember.  Other stuff I need to get done around here tho things that can wait.

Yesterday was definitely a recovery day but I kind of feel like I could get some things done today if necessary beyond what's listed above.

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The 65 inch TV I wanted showed up on Walmart to be picked up at the Walmart in town here. So I ordered it and walaah - it came back with "your order has been delayed".  Well, if  they don't confirm it by tomorrow I'll call them and cancel it.  It's really all I wanted and it was the best price for a TV like that that's going to come along any time soon.  I mean, I wanted a laptop too, but I've found I can deal with this notepad I have, it's just the screen is a bit small for my tastes.  But I don't use it that often, just at hotels and sometimes in the truck.  Not necessarily anything worth spending another 5 or 6 hundred on.

Mother was in a very good mood today, we talked on and off for hours.  I was really supposed to go spend a night over at Caleb's house, but it just wasn't working out that way. I was supposed to do other stuff as well, but again, just worked out the way it did.  I was glad I spent as much time with mom as I did tho. She;s up there in years and as my manager pointed out to me, you "never know".  A rather morbid warning but a necessary one. I got plenty of visiting in, but it was limited between my house, Caleb, my mom and the limited engagement yesterday with the rest of the family.

It was a good trip.  I'll simply state that now. It was worth the time coming out here, it was  worth whatever it cost me in money, it's something I should have done last year at the latest.  Somehow I'll have to find the motivation to do it again without letting more than a full year pass. Mom doesn't get a lot of company, I think she more prefers being alone excepting seeing family.  She did her best to get this Thanksgiving together, which she repeatedly thanked me for helping her.  She clearly did not have the wherewithal to do all that work by herself.

The jalapeno poppers were a true success once again. I've come up with a slightly different recipe using Cayenne pepper.  I've not seen one using it in the recipe but I can tell ya jalapeno poppers without extra added kick to it, at least to me? Bland.

Mom put on a cool looking cap at the moment before I loaded up into a Lyft car and left, I snapped a photo which I'll be putting onto Facebook later. Directly after that she started tearing up : ( Not a bad thing I guess but hard to leave like that. The Lyft driver was this cool lady that I had 25 minutes worth of interesting conversation with  At the end, she said she really only does Lyft to have social interaction with people, she didn't care about earning money.  That was a first! Hadn't heard that from anyone before. 

Well I"m at the airport. I showed up early, I had no idea what it was going to be like getting through security the day after Thanksgiving.  The line was short. The wait after I put my stuff into the containers to go through the xray machine was ridiculous. They just stopped everything.  We waited so long I finally asked them what the wait was for. They just stared at me. Louder: WHY ARE WE WAITING HERE? WHAT IS GOING ON?  Started at me again before dude operating the conveyor belt said there is something in a bag they have to check.

I just stood there and stared back at them. Not my bags, I have nothing illegitimate in them, why hold everyone else up? But the apparently thought it was my bag.  A police officer finally showed up and then they asked whose bag this is? ALL of them staring at me, simply because I had the audacity to ask them what the hell was going on.  The young girl next to me said it's mine.  I continued staring at them. Did they think a stare down was going to intimidate people?  Or that it's even necessary? I asked in a normal tone of voice at first, respectful as well. When they just gave me a look, that's when I upped the ante.

____________________

Weird.  I left the place I was sitting at and went to the gate area and they were already boarding.  it was more than half an hour before flight departure so I thought that strange.  The other thing I didn't know or didn't remember is you have to check in 24 hours in advance.   I was asking the ticket agent about why I kept getting basically the end slot of the entire boarding to get on the plane? 

Well whatever.  I ended up in a middle seat - again.  The only good thing that came out of that is that it was up near the front of the plane, getting off the plane was much faster.  Arriving in Dallas, I determined quickly that I was going to drive home and not waste another night of hotel money.  Grabbed a cuppa at Starbucks at the airport and drove 85 mph the entire way back.  I always find it interesting how you catch up to other vehicles and then suddenly they are speeding up and trying to get ahead of you - for what reason?  No freaking clue.  Just the games people play out there. 

And I'm home.  Interesting trip.  Not sure what the next trip is, but it's not going to be to Phoenix, don't suspect.

I got nothing from my manager for this weekend. That doesn't necessarily mean I won't, but at least I'm assured I"ll have nothing going out tomorrow.  I need a recoup day and just get my head back into being out here.  Dogs were happy to see me but were acting strange.  I've been gone a lot lately.  Maybe they start considering the other house their home?  I dunno, but they're here, Addler is on my bed, almost a pouting face. 

So, allegedly Cyber Monday is going to be as good as black friday.  I haven't seen the ads yet and I have looked.  I did not stop at any Walmart in Dallas as I had surmised I might do.  That because of what I saw at Walmart in Phoenix, everything that was "good" was gone before we got there, which was within an hour of the start of the big sale.  I just thought a waste of my time, I'll wait for Cyber Monday, if that doesn't produce anything, I'll just move along.

My room? Weird.  Someone clearly had been sleeping in here but just strange that all the sheets felt wet all over. Even the ones in my clothes hamper.  I think it was just very cold in here and the illusion of wet.  I switched my sheets back on it, I ain't sleeping in someone's else's stuff, whatever stuff that may be.  I also stepped on the scale. 213.  That's the end of the day, not the beginning.  I suspect my weight in the morning may be a pleasant surprise. Or at least no higher than when I left off.

Final countdown to leaving mom's house and heading to the airport.  The "dreaded" Thanksgiving dinner turned out ok.  I mostly just kept my mouth shut and laughed at stupid jokes and made myself as invisible as possible.  If something was going to start, it wasn't because of anything I said.  My oldest brother did not show up with his customary 6 pack of beer in a cooler, which was quite strange.  I've never actually seen that before.  Mom says he's cut back on his consumption. I guess.  He's 5 years older than me meaning he's approaching 60.  Better late than never, when considering drinking too much alcohol.

I will freely admit that I had 2 glasses of wine yesterday, but not at the family get together. Only one inlaw was drinking and dang if you could't smell the liquor from 5 feet away in that glass. Everyone else abstained.    I got out of here after it was over - we lasted together all of 2 hours, which is typical - and headed to my house in Phoenix.  They had wanted me to come over yesterday but I got too  busy.  I was waiting for Caleb to contact me so I figured I to wait at my house and visit.  Lynnette - a non -drinker - had decided to have some Corona's for the holiday, I pulled out a small bottle of Merlot and drank 2 large glasses and dumped the rest down the sink.  I saw no reason to keep it, I didn't want to get drunk and they weren't having any of it so get rid of it.

I got to sit there 2 plus hours visiting with them.  Bought Lynnette some sort of device that gives electrical impulses to relieve nerve or muscle pain, not sure which.  That was my Christmas present to her.  What I'd really love to do is come back here without telling anyone but my friends on a weekend and visit them and bypass family.  I saw family, now it's time to visit friends.

It's Friday, I won't be back to Dallas until 8:00 pm, 2 hour drive home and a stop at a walmart for the heck of it on the way back.  I dunno if I'll even go home tonight.  I could just as easy stay at a cheap hotel overnight and come back in the morning.  I have no idea what my manager is going to arrange for me for work, if any, this weekend. But tomorrow is out of the question, Sunday at the earliest.  I don't really want to go back to work until Monday, but if she dumped me with something Sunday I'd just take it and eat it.  I need the miles and the work.  This last paycheck was awesome, but next paycheck will be pathetic if I don't get at least one good run in and a shorter one.

Meanwhile, my gut is still decreasing.  Mom has an old scale so it's hard to tell exactly my weight and even if it's accurate.  But somewhere between 204 and 208.  But the results in the mirror are definitely showing even more now.  Abs starting to show through fat.  Long way to go, but still very encouraging.  This is why I really tried to stick to this diet even during the eating holiday.  I'm definitely sticking with it til Christmas.  Then? Just depends on where my weight and fat levels are.  At some point I'm going to want to go on a sugar fest and consume ice cream and choco pie.  But hey, I resisted for Thanksgiving and I didn't think I would make it through this week on this diet.

I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, when I get to the airport I'm going to have something there, whatever I can find to tide me over til I get to Dallas.  I'm making no decisions about what I'm going to do when I arrive in Dallas until I get to Dallas. I was out to 1:30 am last night, far too late but it was worth it, but I'll be tired today.  Driving home after getting there may not be very appealing. I could just stay another night at the hotel I have my vehicle parked at.  It's just too early to tell, I'd rather drive home and sleep in my bed tho.

Meanwhile I was texting my friends at the house, they had a big get together yesterday with lots of people there.  But as with me, she is also ready to resume a normal schedule. I'd like to spend a couple days home.  I have been on the run for 2 weeks running.  And then a nice trip to Brownsville and wait for 3 days again haha. 

EARPLUGS!!! I finally remembered.  Got them packed in my notebook bag that I carry on to the plane. I want to be able to shut out as much noise as possible if there are babies and young children flying, as with several of the last flights that I have been on hearing them crying and whining and carrying on. 

And I also thought of a present for myself instead of the elusive TV: buy all the part on Cyber monday to rebuild my desktop computer.  New everything: Motherboard, processer, power supply, DVD player, hard drive.  Just reuse the old case since it's in great condition.  I've gotten my use out of that thing, it has served me well but it's 6 or so years old and it's time to upgrade. This would be the perfect time of year to do that.  And maybe get a 32 inch monitor.  Or just buy presents for everyone else and skip myself this year? I dunno. 

Well, enough of this.  I was online looking at flight departures. Apparently some flights are being delayed. I'll assume in snow/weather conditions in the Northeast, my flight is still showing on time. 

Okay.
Well it's Thanksgivging Day, and yes, the middle brother texted mother a few minutes ago about when to come.

Mother told him and then sent out a text message to all 3: please bring company manners. 

So she started this off on the wrong foot already and I'm already starting to get irritated and question myself why I even bothered to come down here. 

She thinks in  her mind she can magically create some illusion of peace among us. Therefore, she gets cranky about forcing the issue, which in turn makes everyone else irritable because she should have just left it alone and let the chips fall where they may.

She also believes she can control anyone that starts shit, which is also a fairytale.  I brought a bottle of wine for this possibility.  If I'm going to have to put up with this nonsense, I'm going to create my own fairytale mindset and have a couple of nice, solid glasses of wine to "deal" with it. 

If my brother goes off on me, I'm fairy much going to try to simply ignore him and act as if he isn't there.  But he knows me and what pushes my buttons and conversely, I know him and what sets him off.  If it starts up, all I can say is I won't stick around for it. There are places I can go and people I can visit. 

Yes, I know, a lot of negativity on TDay but mom got it rolling with all of us.  And I know how my middle brother and I know how many holidays he has ruined with his foul attitude and he threatened me with bodily harm last time he spoke to me via family wide text messaging.

Mother is not going to like me pulling out that bottle of wine, but the choices are limited.  My oldest brother will bring a cooler full of beer anyway, that's his coping mechanism with this crap.  He won't stick around, either, if hell breaks loose.  He'll literally get up, grab his stuff, tell his wife they're leaving and that will be that.  I would probably call myself an Uber and get the hell out of here as well.  There is a dear friend I would really like to visit today in exchange for family garbage. 

Whatever.

Payday came early cause of the holiday.  My paycheck was quite healthy, as I expected.  I had somewhere around 60 hours of detention pay on the paycheck and that alone was worth some dough, plus the two trips, plus other pay that is thrown in. This is why I welcomed sitting around in Brownsville for 3 days, without that this paycheck would have been much less and rather pathetic. 

Oh, well I am going out with my son tonight.  We're going to Walmart here for Black Friday.  I doubt the stuff he wants is on that sale, but it's fine by me.  He'll have to come get me tho, or maybe I"ll just take an Uber over to him. If I've had a few glasses of wine I won't want to drive anywhere.  Mother won't want me driving her vehicle anyway, which is fine  It's only $15 there, maybe more coming back I dunno if it will even be available tonight, but I looked it up just now and it's available at the moment at that price.    Just depends if anyone wants to make money on a holiday. 

Well that's it for now. Going to get my Jalapeno poppers prepared and ready to put into the oven. 

Well, tomorrow is the big day. 
We already cooked the turkey and cut it up.
My mom insisted on doing it that way apparently my oldest bro's wife did it that way last year.
Perplexing, tho, the reason.  My bro's wife was busy with work, she's in retail sales.
We aren't really busy with anything.  Fresh hot turkey out of the oven?
But it's whatever to me, I'm not going to sweat that, I'm going to wonder if my
middle bro shows up and if he does, what is going to happen? 

Anyway, slept quite well last night, like this morning I didn't want to get out of bed.
That was a refreshing change.  Got the turkey prepared, dumped that in the oven and took off.
Caleb had given me the ashes that were left from my dad and I climbed high up on South
Mountain, had a little memorial of my own and let the wind carry his ashes away.

Oh, I stopped at Waffle House before going up there, I wanted a full tummy. Quite the mistake.
Halfway up that mountain the need to relieve myself came sweeping over me. By the time I got
halfway back down after spreading the ashes? No waiting.  Some dude on a ridge about an eighth a mile away looking at my through binoculars?  Give it a rest dude.  When Mother Nature hits like that, it's not like you have any say over it.  It is what it is. 

After I got done, I was hiking out of there and this dude had actually come down off of his mountaintop and was coming over the top of a small hill coming straight at me.  He came straight up to me and...kept walking by like nothing.  Weird.  Just plain weird.  But I have had weird encounters with people out there in the past. 

After that I tried to go to my old church - but they had moved. So I went to the new address some distance away and they weren't there either. I haven't contacted them asking about it, I don't have any more time for visiting I don't think. Well maybe on Friday, maybe. Like morning.  Tomorrow I suppose I could, but I really want to head back to my house and spend some more time with my friends there before coming back and doing Thanksgiving with family. 

Anyway, I said screw it after not finding the church there, even though there were even pics of it on the internet and I was positive I was at the correct address.  I went to a bar/grill, had a couple of drinks.  Nothing fancy and no drunkenness, but I"m on vacation, so why not?  Carb free, lol.  Left there, went to Fry's.  It's a local grocery store, huge local chain, Kroger's bought them out quite a while back but they kept the name.  Got all the fixing for jalapeno poppers, I'm going to make those tomorrow. Easy recipe, not too much prep time, short cooking time as well. 

Got back here well in time to get the turkey out of the oven, slice it up and then take a nap. Mom and I went to Caleb's apartment for dinner, sat and talked for a couple of hours, and came back to her house.  Caleb wants to do Black Friday with me tomorrow - nothing for me really, just wanted to take him and his wife shopping.  She doesn't want to go, I don't really blame here, it can be a mad house.  Well, if I find a nice laptop for a good price I may do that.  As it stands, I just tried to order a 65 inch smart tv from Bestbuy, but they neither deliver it to my area nor would they ship it to the city 30 miles from my house to their store there.  ?????????  My hopes for a 65 inch smart tv are being dashed to pieces. I keep thinking I'm going to give up on it, then I see something online, only to have my hopes dashed.

Oh well. My last resort will be to stop at a Walmart in Dallas before heading home for the hope that maybe there will be still be some of those TV's available. It's a pretty far-fetched idea, those TV's are likely going to sell out quickly on Thursday.  But, you never know! 

On a different note, I terribly miss having a functioning 15 inch screen laptop and I may just switch to that and wash my hands of large screen tv's. 

Oh!!!  My credit score! Transunion! I got my last update from CreditKarma and it said my Equifax had gone up another 38 points but Trans Union had only gone up 5. Very perplexing.  My next update wasn't supposed to be for another 5 days from now, so when I saw a notice in my email that my TransUnion score had been updated, I was quick to find out what kind of update. The score had gone all the way up to 700, from the previous low-side fair range.  It means that my credit score is in the good range with both of those companies, which is a significant improvement.  It may be some time before I see any more upgrades in my score, I dunno.  I had no hope, literally, of ever getting up to good range.  My hope went down the drain once I saw how long it takes for late payments on my mortgage to fall off of there.

The good range will do.  I guess it doesn't matter, I am not in the position yet to buy land anyway. They're still going to want a good down payment and that's going to take probably a couple of years worth of saving for the amount of property I want.  But, there are these other alternatives I have been looking at.  Tax lien auctions, rent to own, owner finance. 

Anyway, it's getting late, time to go to sleep. 

My mom doesn't have internet/wifi at her house.  So I"m going through more than I'd like.  I figured I would this week but not this much. 

Anyway, I met up with my son and his wife last night at Texas Roadhouse over in Tempe.  We had a good time for a couple of hours visiting.  Great food too, of course.  I am going over to his new apartment tonight, mom in tow.  He invited her through me to come, you know, spur of the moment?  She had a problem with that, but whatever.  If you want to come, let's go. If not, I'm going over there tonight.  She opted to go. 

After resting quite well last night, I took the remaining ashes from my dad and climbed up a mountain to release them into the great outdoors.  Dad had stated to his then-wife a long time ago that he would rather be dumped out a window while driving up Mount Pleassant, a wish I would have liked to have fulfilled, but the mountains here in Phoenix had to suffice.  The whole point is he was a lover of the outdoors and I think his memory sufficiently served.  I buried the box his ashes came in as well.  I don't need empty boxes with small amounts of human ashes in them hanging around forever.  I feel my dad is in a much better place now and that is enough for me. 

Oh, this morning, I had to do all the leg work to get the turkey out, get all the stuff out of it, stuff it with stuffing and get it in the oven. Mom insisted she wanted to cook the turkey the day before. It's whatever to me, I am here to visit people, eating is secondary.  I"m making my spicy jalapeno poppers tomorrow - and it's purely on a selfish level. They will be so spicy I doubt many are going to like them, but I am not going to be eating coleslaw and potatoes and the like, I want something that really appeases my pallet and those are a sure thing. 

Time is flying here, amazingly. I thought it would just drag on but I"ve been keeping myself busy.

Dilemma.  I wanted that 65inch screen tv.  I can't get it. At least not here. By the time I get to Dallas tomorrow I'm pretty sure they'll all be sold out at all Walmart locations.  And now, too late, Rene offers to go get it for me?  I don't have enough cash at home to cover it. It's $398 plus tax.  I think I have $400 there, I don't have enough to cover the tax on that much money. 

I may stop in Dallas at a Walmart just to see if any are available when I get back but I won't be back to my vehicle probably before 6pm.  I'm likely to find slim pickings, but I"ll probably try.  Unless I can get them to loan Rene the extra cash and I pay them back when I get home.  I'm not really sure how she would get the thing back.  The guy at the house over there has a small SUV, I'm not sure the thing will fit in there.  I've found several 65" online for good price but none of them are smart TV. I want the option to watch stuff through the internet.  I mean, if you're going to do it, do it right, yes? 

Well enough. I'm going to take a nap and then get ready to go to my son's house.

After you haven't been to a place for a while, you kinda lose the feel for navigating around it a bit.  It all came back to my memory quickly tho driving around.  And it took a very short time to remember one of the reasons I love to hate Phoenix: traffic, distracted drivers and jerkioffs intentionally holding up traffic.  The major street running by my neighborhood is also ridiculous now. Worse than I've ever seen it.  Oh, and what cruise around town would be complete if you didn't drive by a crime scene where a body is found in a canal? And everything else about this metro Phoenix area that make it, IMO, a hell hole to live in.

Anyway, I spent several hours at my house today. The fish in my little pond have grown HUGE.  I mean, they are FAR too big for that pond.  I suggested trading them for small fish or selling them and going and buying a slew of little Koi and goldfish to take their place.  There is one Koi in there and it's about 14 inches long and very, very large for such a small pond.  Fish that large just aren't happy in a pond that small.

The house? in exact same condition as when I left it. Which is a good thing, it's immaculate, clean, looking good, lots of vegetation, full of tenants, just a nice thing.  Neighbors on both sides are still living like shit, to put it bluntly. They have their own versions of landfills going. Neighbors behind, same crap. It's ridiculous.  But whatever, I'm letting them make the calls there, only if they have a problem that is usually involved with replacing stuff that usually means money do I get a phone call and get involved.  There are a few issues. The neighbor's tree ruined the wood slat fence in the back when it fell over. It covers maybe 50 feet of the back, the rest is a chain link fence.  Mark said 2 grand to replace it, 'm like what?  Nooo.  No way it's going to cost that much to fix it.

And mattresses.  Apparently people moved into rooms with their own and he got rid of the ones I had bought for those rooms.  He said they were falling apart and junk.  I can agree that likely they probably had seen enough lifespan.  But that's 3 Queen beds down the drain and any time one of the people moves out, I'm going ot have to replace one until it occurs in all 3 of those rooms.

Okay, dat 2 of the trip. Extended period on Keto diet.  I wasn't originally going to stay on the diet, but since the options to eat such fare are still in front of me, I have decided to carry on with it.  Perhaps I'll just eat Turkey and veggies at Thanksgiving.

I've read a lot of stories of people dropping off of the diet and having an extremely hard time getting back on it.  I don't really think I'd have a hard time getting back on it, but getting into Ketosis took quite a while for me.  +-

Have spent ample time visiting with mom, but I need to get over to the house and check that out.  Visiting friends and my son are a different story. They are all working and they don't have a lot of time during the week.  I understood that before coming down here but the airfare was the main consideration.  It went up significantly for both the weekend before and after, especially after.  Was just looking at the news, 25 million people flying and almost 50 million hitting the road for Thanksgiving. 

So much of my visiting may just be mom and hopefully at least my son for a night, after that I dunno.  And Thanksgiving. If my middle brother shows up, the festivities will go to hell in a handbasket.  But I'll get to see everyone else so I guess that's a plus, maybe, depending on everyone's moods.

So I'm just going to go see some sights I haven't seen in quite a while and I wish I had the rest of my dad's ashes I would take care of that today.  Well whatever.  I'm going to get this ball rolling and get this day going.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality of this hotel, considering the negative marks it had on reviews. No foul odors, no sticky carpets, everything works.  It's old, yes, furniture and fixtures a bit outdated, yes, but nothing near as bad as what others were proclaiming. I did take a chance and I'm glad I did.

I didn't sleep well, however, which had nothing to do with the hotel. In fact, the bed was almost the same firmness as my new bed, very comfortable.  I dunno, just the unknown coming back here for a holiday where my middle brother may show up and start hell with everyone.  Apparently he hasn't spoken to mom in over a year?  And now I'm hearing his own son won't stay with him when he's in town?  Weird stuff. 

Anyway, there was no huge crowd at security checkin at airport, took about 5 minutes and I was through.  A bit interesting considering this is a holiday week.  Plane was jam packed tho . I mean completely full.  San Antonio stop I was barely there half and hour and we left again on a new plane, same thing, full to the brim.  The only real drag about Southwest is there is not advance seating.  There are boarding priorities but it's first come first served and I was in the last boarding group on both planes.  I still ended up with a window seat.  Not because there were any available but the only seat left was 2 very large people and they said I could have the window seat and the very very large man would sit on the aisle. 

I pretty much slept most of the way, tho there was a baby crying almost the entire trip.  I dunno why I always forget my earplugs.  I have them in my suitcase but I just don't remember to bring them with me.  It would help quite a bit with all the noise from babies and toddlers.  I'm guessing part of the problem is ears not popping.  We went up to 40,000 feet from San Antonio to Phoenix, that's a lot of swallowing or yawning to pop your ears, a thing a baby isn't going to know to do. 

By the time I got to Phoenix I was starving.  I had a small bite in San Antonio but it wasn't enough.  I didn't know what I wanted to do first when I got here so I just stayed at the airport and got a bite to eat.  But it was clear I needed to go to mom's house first. And that's where I've been all day long.  I had no desire to go anywhere and we were talking for a couple of hours. 

It's almost 10 Texas time and I'm exhausted.  I'm going to bed early and hopefully wake up a bit more rested in the morning.  I'm supposed to go meet my son tomorrow evening, but that isn't really for sure yet.  Just hopeful.  I also need to stop by my house and see everyone there.  I guess I don't think I"m going to get as much visiting as I had originally planned, but there is an old friend I really want to see before I leave here and also spreading the rest of my dad's ashes, probably the same mountain range where  Caleb did it.

So that's it. Nothing earth shattering besides talk of my middle brother and my mom's dislike that Caleb doesn't return texts and such.  And finding out Caleb isn't going to be at Thanksgiving.  Take it up with him, I said, I'm not in control of Caleb.  He is spending it with his wife's family.  I do admit that that family is a bit standoffish.  I dunno why or how it is they can act like that, I just tried to be congenial to them at the wedding.  My son isn't really up front about that situation, but that's his deal. I know between work and school he is a very, very busy young man.  And that will go on for annotate year or so.   So I'm not going to judge him for those circumstances plus a year into being married, lots of pressure and stresses to deal with I'm sure.  Dad doesn't need to add to it.

I think mom is just not happy about how family is going at this point in time, I can't offer any hope, I doubt it will ever get better.  I dunno what's wrong with my brother and at this point I don't want to know. 

Well that's it for now, I'm going to go to sleep.